Sweater Weather in the Shatterdome
by Kuro49
Summary: Mako Mori is good at many things, knitting sweaters is not one of them. Or the 5 1 where everyone gets a handmade Mori knit, and they are all just as ugly.


I know the sweater theme is a little overdone, but let me have my holiday fun.

XXX

**Sweater Weather in the Shatterdome**

XXX

5. The Hansens

Mako knits them sweaters, matching ones that are every kind of ugly out there.

And like the rest of the Shatterdome, Herc and Chuck don't have the heart to tell her no.

Not that it stops Chuck from expressing his more than morbid curiosity at the less than pretty, deformed thing that may have been yarn, once. "What _is_ that?"

Chuck earns an elbow to the stomach, twice. Once from the left where his dad is and another from the right where the has-been is standing there with the biggest, widest grin over his face. Because of course, Mako can do no wrong in his eyes.

And damnit, he's only just gotten out of the med bay two weeks ago.

"That's Max." She tells him with a slight roll of her eyes as she lifts up one to show them the lopsided shape that could have been anything from a bulldog's head to Kaiju shit. And even then, it's only when you squint and tilt your head just right.

"That's _Max_." Chuck repeats after her, deadpan, and narrowly avoids the second elbow coming from Becket.

"I have not yet learned how to make a doggy sweater." She remarks mournfully at the sight of Max's butt from where he has his nose buried in a corner of the Shatterdome hallway, sniffing out something no one else can.

"Thank you, Miss Mori."

She smiles at them like she would smile at Max, and for that, even Chuck is willing to bite his tongue and gives her a terse nod as he watches his father take the terrible excuse of hand knitted sweaters from Mako's offering hands.

(While Chuck isn't on fist-fighting terms with Becket anymore, Herc may not even step in to stop the fight if only they knew Becket's the one who has been teaching Mako how to knit. Obviously with less than stellar results.)

.

4. The Kaidonoskys

Mako knits them sweaters, dark green ones that match their coats halfway to their stomachs. The rest continuing in a mix of black and brown and yellow because that's all that is left of the yarn she's got on hand.

"I ran out of the same coloured yarn." She tells them with a duck of her head as an explanation when they have the sweaters spread out on their bed.

Just as Chuck would describe them if he could see, they are every kind of ugly there is, and then some more. And even shiny rings and fur-lined jackets can't distract from the sight of _this_.

"They're…" Aleksis starts, looking at the girl and the sweaters in turn, wondering, in the back of his head, whether he is big enough to stretch the fabric until it is no longer wearable.

"Nice." Sasha finishes, a loose thread being held between her blood red nails.

Mako Mori blinks, and the slow spread of a wide, wide smile has the Russians looking at one another.

"I am glad you like it." Mako tells them, that smile staying in its place, Raleigh nods at the wife and husband team out of the Vladivostok Shatterdome from where he stands by the door to their quarters.

There will be no Ukrainian hard house that goes with this sweater, nothing actually will. While the Russians may know how to lie through their teeth, at least now they have learned to get Mako Mori more yarn, preferably of the same colour.

Or at least colours that can be put next to each other without inducing a headache.

.

3. The Wei Tan Clan

Mako knits them sweaters, they are matching ones in a red the same colour of fire and it's no exaggeration when the Wei triplets all simultaneously agree that they look better on fire instead.

"Dragons," she tells them when they are examining the threads of gold along the arms. Threads of gold that run uneven and crooked, missing knits and stitches going down each arm.

"Are you sure those aren't snakes, Mako?" Hu Wei asks with a raised eyebrow as he holds the shirt up to his brother's frame.

"Or worms?" Jin adds with a grin, bumping his fist to Cheung while Mako gives them both a punch in the shoulder, with her thumb tucked in beneath her curled fingers, fist kept tight.

"Dragons." She repeats herself, voice not giving an inch even as she gives all three of the Weis a feral grin.

They step back, hands clutching their respective bright red sweaters to their chests.

"Thanks, Mako. We appreciate the uh, gifts," they tell her with a nod, "really."

"You're welcome." Her grin grows wider as she turns around to walk away, and she is halfway down the hall when she lifts up a hand in a salute.

.

2. Tendo Choi

Mako knits him a sweater, and not enough coffee spilt can cover up whatever the hell she has just given him.

Because, _seriously_, that cannot be a sweater.

Glancing over her shoulders to his old friend leaning against one of the machines in LOCCENT, Raleigh Becket just makes a motion with his hands and gives him one of those signature Becket grins that he knows by heart.

_Do it._

"It gets cold here, especially at night." She says when he has the sweater in his hands. Tendo stuffs the last bite of his bagel into his mouth and unfolds the gift.

"Is that…?"

He looks up at her, and then back down. He repeats this three times before Raleigh takes pity on him.

"Jesus," he tells him, "as a baby. Because you know, your kid is almost here and your…" And at this Raleigh gestures to Tendo and then at his own wrist. Tendo's left hand curling reflexively around the rosary tangled there.

"Whose idea was this?"

Mako bites back a grin, and the chief LOCCENT officer doesn't need to be anywhere close to their shared neural bridge to know that this is all Raleigh.

"She was more than happy to learn." He says when he is backing towards the door, biting back the grin from exploding into laughter when Tendo stands up from his chair, the baby Jesus sweater still in his hands.

"You're a terrible influence, Becket."

"She was going to make you one with a bagel on it." He says when he is one quick turn away from running down the hall. Tendo turns around and looks at Mako, still sitting there, now having claimed one of his four coffees as her own.

"It seemed fitting." She tells him, fighting off her own grin as she takes a sip.

.

1. The K-Science Department

Mako knits them each a sweater, ones that don't match the other.

"Are those Christmas presents?" Newt asks as soon as they walk in, Mako with her packages in hand and Raleigh careful of where he is stepping, and even more so of _what_ he is stepping on.

"Yes, one for each of the doctors."

"You didn't need to, Miss Mori."

"She wanted to, Hermann, just accept the gift already."

Hermann gets a plain dark sweater vest that is kind of uneven in the finishing knits. Newton gets a thin black one that he can pull up his sleeves to show off his tattoos. And even if he splashes neon blue Kaiju guts on himself, the black will certainly hide it.

The sweaters are different in every way possible but there is one familiarity between them, and that is they may also be a little ill fitted. It's a little tight in places and loose in others, but Kaiju entrails don't spare a thing when it comes flying across the room at a velocity too quick to avoid.

The yelling starts, and the neon blue Kaiju bits never does quite wash out again.

Not that anyone is complaining because at least now, the scientists have an excuse to leave it in the contamination box.

However, it turns out more useful than Mako intend those sweaters to be when Hermann decides that it's better to continuously ruin one article of clothing than multiples and Newt finds that the yarn Mako used is somehow a safer protective measure than the aprons and gloves he's been using.

.

+1. Stacker Pentecost

Mako knits him a sweater.

And it's the most perfect thing.

"I made this for you, sensei."

She gets to call him _sensei_ because even though the PPDC still recognizes Stacker Pentecost as the Marshal, the war has come and gone, she is allowed this piece of peace where she has fought and her family doesn't die.

"Thank you, Mako." He tells her when she is standing in his office, holding out the simple black hand knitted sweater over to him like the promise he has made (and followed through with) all those years ago.

She is beaming when she gives him a slight bow, even more so when he returns the gesture with a slight tilt to the way his lips curl.

(The world has never seen Marshal Pentecost in anything that isn't a tailored suit, his fine-pressed uniform, or a Jaeger pilot drive-suit.)

So when the Marshal is walking down to LOCCENT in a black sweater with a worn Coyote Tango patch sewn into the cuffs, it's mandate sweater weather in the Shatterdome where everyone who have received a signature Mori knit better be wearing theirs.

XXX Kuro


End file.
